Did you know that WordPress link building can be a fantastic way of getting more out of your site on the popular CMS platform? In fact, proper link building can be very beneficial for your website and its overall performance.
But as with everything, we all want to avoid common mistakes that people make. So today, we will present the ten most common link building mistakes on WordPress in 2024 and show you how to avoid them.
What Is Link Building? How Does It Work?
Link building is a popular SEO technique for better online visibility and rankings. It works by placing links on your website with both internal and external origins. Almost all SEO experts agree that famous search engines like Google and Bing analyze links. It is one of the several ways search engines find the value and relevance of your site’s pages.
If you have a WordPress site, having a good link building strategy is a must. Internal linking is comparatively easier since you do not have to collect any links. You just need to invest some time and effort to connect all the pages of your site via internal links. However, when it comes to external link building, you first have to collect useful backlinks via outreach. A standard practice is to collect them from authoritative and popular websites related to your site’s topic.
Why Should You Focus on Proper Link Building?
We will now share some key benefits of proper link building before we present the most common errors people make during the process.
1. Obtain a Higher SEO Score
One of the main advantages of link building is that you can positively impact your website’s SEO score. If you collect and place high-quality backlinks on your site, you can benefit from the authority of your collected links and improve your own SEO.
2. Have Better Online Visibility
Next comes online visibility. One of the main pros of link building is that you can rank higher on search engines. This is in fact a by-product of the previous point we just mentioned. With a better presence on Google, Bing, and Yahoo, your platform or business will be more visible to your target audience.
3. Get More Traffic from Visitors
What happens when you have a better online visibility? Well, you increase your chances of getting more visitors every month. This is a very crucial factor since you can identify more potential customers from the increased traffic.
4. Boost Your Conversion Rates
Link building can also impact your conversion rates. When you implement the strategy correctly, you can increase conversion rates and sales at the end of the day. This can play a significant role in enhancing your profits in the long run.
5. Generate More Leads
Not every visitor will be your direct customer. With the right link building strategy, you can generate more leads and attract different types of stakeholders. This is an important aspect that can fuel the growth of your WordPress site.
10 WordPress Link Building Mistakes to Avoid in 2024 & How to Fix Them
Let us go through the 10 most common WordPress link building mistakes that you should avoid in 2024. We will also guide you and explain what you can do to avoid these errors on WordPress. So let us have a look!
1. Not Prioritizing the Search Intent
What is your audience looking for? What are your potential visitors searching for online? Without knowing what they want and reflecting their search intent, link building alone would not suffice. In fact, you should adopt a robust strategy to make sure that your website fulfills the search intent of your audience.
What You Can Do:
- Do proper keyword research for your site. Invest adequate time into this and use premium tools if necessary.
- Draw inspiration from the top-performing domains in the niche you are in.
- Avoid overusing or randomly using keywords everywhere. Be more specific and careful.
- Consult an SEO expert to find more ways to focus on the search intent and keywords.
2. Using Content Not Relevant to the Link & Vice Versa
Let us imagine a scenario. You have placed the focus keyword ‘WordPress link building’ in your blog but linked it to a URL that discusses SEO on Shopify. When someone clicks on this anchor text and gets directed to its URL, they are bound to be confused since there is no relevance.
So, you should make sure that the anchor texts, overall content, and links are all relevant to one another.
How to Fix This:
- Try to create and place engaging content that sounds special to your visitors and is relevant to the links.
- Experiment with and develop various types of content like case studies, listicles, and tutorial blogs.
- Start by researching what your audience needs and then including relevant content and links that address these needs.
3. Adopting Questionable Link Building Methods
We have seen numerous examples where people have adopted shady methods of buying links or collecting hundreds of backlinks in bulk. Most of these often lead to bad results in the long run. If Google can track that you are using purchased backlinks or utilizing spammy techniques, you will be penalized.
So why risk it? Proper WordPress link building takes time and effort. Taking shortcuts will often lead to unfortunate situations and poor results.
What We Recommend:
- Do not opt for purchasing links.
- Avoid spammy methods of collecting WordPress backlinks.
- Quality matters when it comes to backlinks. Stay away from anyone who promises hundreds of backlinks collected in a short time.
4. Utilizing Repetitive Sources & Anchor Texts
You have a few great backlinks and keywords. It is perfectly fine to use them in moderation and place them in the right places. However, overusing these sources and anchor texts can backfire. Always try your best to avoid repetition.
Remember that if you use the same content and links over an extended period, your audience will not find anything new or useful. This will negatively impact your site.
Our Suggestion:
- Focus on regular outreach to collect new backlinks.
- Conduct keyword research at regular intervals to find new, interesting keywords to use as anchor texts.
- If you find any instance of repeated use of keywords or anchor text anywhere, address it.
5. Putting Little Effort Into On-Page SEO
We often find websites relying excessively on link building without even caring about on-page SEO factors. This can lead to a total disaster since on-page SEO covers some crucial elements of your website including page speed, image optimization, internal linking, and content in various areas like URL, meta description, and body.
High-quality WordPress backlinks will be of no use if you do not prioritize on-page SEO. Luckily, there are several ways to make sure that the on-page SEO factors of your WordPress site are up to the mark.
Our Recommendations:
- Conduct a comprehensive SEO audit at the beginning to identify on-page SEO errors on your WordPress site.
- Use a dedicated internal link building WordPress plugin.
- Take necessary steps to optimize the content and media used in your website.
- Make sure you present informative, helpful, and authoritative content.
- Address serious issues like thin and/or duplicate content and copyright violations.
6. Using Outdated Outreach Methods
Outreach is one of the main ways of collecting backlinks from good sources. So it is something that you should never overlook. However, with so many sites competing for high-quality backlinks, you should try your best to stand out. If you use traditional email formats or outdated outreach methods, it will be difficult to get great results.
What We Suggest:
- Start your email or message with something that grabs the attention of the reader.
- Describe the specific benefits of sharing the backlinks with you.
- Try to set a positive and friendly tone but be respectful and polite at the same time.
- Follow up if needed but do not knock too many times.
7. Placing Less Emphasis on No-Follow Links
Good WordPress link building is not only about do-follow links. In Google’s guideline on how to qualify your outbound links, you will find an emphasis on no-follow, UGC and sponsored links as well. Even though some SEO experts will overlook no-follow links, the majority of the professionals keep track of them and include them in the reports.
What You Can Do:
- Make sure you track all of your no-follow links.
- Use both no-follow and do-follow links in a balanced manner.
- Try to get no-follow links from multiple good sources.
8. Not Prioritizing Local SEO
Without a good local SEO strategy, success cannot always be guaranteed with just WordPress link building. Suppose, you have a WordPress site based in Texas. In this case, your local SEO efforts should address the requirements of online visitors in Texas and surrounding areas. So, you need to make sure that you have a good local SEO strategy in place. Your link building approach should also meet this need.
How to Fix This:
- Focus on local directories and keywords that are popular in the area you are in.
- Collect backlinks from the websites of local businesses similar to yours.
- Gather backlinks from various blog sites, listings, and directories.
- Make sure you have a solid reputation among your local audience.
9. Not Tracking the Overall Performance
Tracking the performance of your backlinks is just as important as collecting them in the first place. You can identify the best links for your WordPress site by doing so. You need to find out if your backlinks are getting enough clicks from visitors or making an impact on traffic or sales. Moreover, analyze your backlink performance across various devices and platforms including social media.
You can also keep track of all the links that are not performing up to the mark. This will also give you an idea of how to collect effective backlinks in the future.
Recommended Solution:
- Use a powerful plugin like BetterLinks to get dedicated analytics, broken link checking, and Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel tracking features.
- Use a link building plugin for WordPress to assign tags to each backlink and track their performance with the tags.
- Track the link performance across multiple browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and so on.
10. Having Unrealistic Expectations
Effective WordPress link building takes time and effort. You need to be patient throughout the process. You can expect great results in just a week after collecting and using various backlinks.
Having unrealistic expectations and changing the strategy too often is not the right way to do things. Take your time and focus on high-quality and relevant backlinks that will actually work.
How to Solve This:
- Dedicate an estimated period for your backlinking efforts.
- Avoid sketchy shortcuts when collecting backlinks.
- Take time to track the performance of your links as mentioned in the previous point.
Implement a Link Building Strategy the Right Way
With the tips that we just mentioned, you can avoid common errors associated with WordPress link building. Always remember that there are no shortcuts to collecting backlinks. Figuring out the right approach often involves a lot of trials and mistakes. So feel free to experiment with various methods to find the best one for your website.
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